The former home of JP’s Night Club (2412 Wisconsin) has been rebuilt after a January 2008 fire, but no tenant is yet lined up for the space. The would-be buyer of the JP’s business has been negotiating to rent the building for months, but has not yet reached a lease agreement with the landlord, according to James Charles, attorney for JP’s owner Michael Papanicolas. The buyer and Papanicolas have signed a sales contract, but the contract is void if the buyer can’t get a lease, Charles adds. Meanwhile, the club’s liquor license was scheduled to expire on September 30, but Papanicolas had applied for a renewal, according to a spokesman for the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration.

A permit on the building’s front door seems to indicate that its use will change from nightclub to “apartment house,” but that’s not accurate, says Demetra Green, a member of the family group that owns the property. “The DCRA [Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs] made a mistake on the permit—no apartments,” Green writes in an email. “JP’s is considering going back into business,” Green continues. “The fire occurred in the middle of his lease, so he has right of first refusal.”

Thanks to new screens at several bars, Glover Park’s football fans have a bewildering array of game-viewing options this season. Here’s some data to help you narrow down your choices:

Town Hall (2218 Wisconsin)Cable Provider: DirecTVGames Available: All NCAA and NFL football gamesSound Options: Game sound on for featured games on the second floor and select games on the first floorFan Bases: Redskins, Saints, Ravens, Eagles, Patriots, Steelers, Panthers, and Titans. “All are welcome, though, and we make every attempt to show all requested games,” says managing partner Paul Holder.Game Day Specials: $2.50 Miller Lite, Coors Lite, and High Life

Blue Ridge (2340 Wisconsin)Cable Provider: DirecTVGames Available: Broadcast NCAA and NFL football gamesSound Options: Game sound allowed, but music plays as wellNFL Fan Bases: Regional NFL teams and local/Southern collegiate conferencesGame Day Specials: Half-price drafts, discounted sandwiches (bar only)
N.B. Blue Ridge now has a large TV screen in its downstairs bar area, with two more flat-screens on order at press time.

Gin & Tonic (2408 Wisconsin)Cable Provider: DirecTVGames Available: All NCAA and NFL football gamesSound Options: Sound always on for biggest game or game with most fansFan Bases: Redskins, Ole Miss, SEC teamsGame Day Specials: $6 pitchers, $4 rail drinks during all games

Surfside (2444 Wisconsin)Cable Provider: DirecTVGames Available: All NFL football gamesSound Options: Sound on for big games or big crowds; otherwise, music playsFan Bases: Redskins, Jets, BillsGame Day Specials: Monday nights—free chips and 7-layer dip with first drink order

Neighbors of Blue Ridge (2340 Wisconsin) have begun to complain about noise emanating from the restaurant’s upstairs event space, recently dubbed Hero Bar. On September 17, revelers on the restaurant’s second-floor deck were heard blocks away, late into the night. “I thought GU was playing its homecoming game in the field next to Whole Foods,” one irked neighbor joked on the Glover Park Yahoo newsgroup.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Jackie Blumenthal responded that, under the terms of the restaurant’s voluntary agreement with the ANC, alcohol can be served on the second-floor deck after midnight “once or twice a month, only for private catered parties, and only if neighbors do not complain.” She added that she had been working with the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) to determine whether Hero Bar is a permissible use of the restaurant’s license. At press time, the ANC was planning to discuss the situation at its September 28 meeting.

In 2007, Vasile Graure doused a young Good Guys (2311 Wisconsin) manager with gasoline and set him on fire. The victim, Vladimir Djordjevic (above), had been hospitalized with severe burns since the attack, but in May, he died of his injuries. Now Graure—already serving a 30-year sentence for the assault—faces murder charges.

On the night of the incident, Graure had been drinking at the strip club, but he was ejected for trying to photograph one of the dancers. He walked up to the gas station at Wisconsin Avenue and Calvert Street and returned with two gallons of gas. When Djordjevic tried to stop him from torching the club, Graure splashed gasoline on him and set him ablaze.

Graure had not been arraigned on the murder charge at press time. There will be a felony conference status in the case on October 12.

Estimable beauty parlor Lucien et Eivind (2233 Wisconsin) is expanding to add a day spa as well as a separate “hair replacement salon” catering to cancer patients, says owner Eivind Bjerke. The renovations should be finished by next spring, adds Bjerke, who was the official White House hairdresser for Rosalynn Carter.

Z-Burger (2414 Wisconsin) is advertising on Craigslist for a female cashier. The catch? You’d have to do the job prior to 1964, when it became illegal for employers to discriminate based on sex. On the plus side, food service uniforms were pretty cute back then.

Glover Books & Music (2319 Wisconsin) closed over the summer, but a tennis shop expects to open in the space soon, its owner says. We ran into Ravi Shankar, owner of north Tenleytown’s Tennis Zone, outside the vacant Glover Books storefront this afternoon, as he was working to clear the building of books and other detritus left by the previous tenant. Shankar said he hoped to open his Glover Park location by October 1.